Japanese company fined Rs 60 L for stealing data of Pune-based firm

In a landmark decision, the Adjudicating Officer of the State Information Technology Department slapped a fine of Rs 60 lakh on a Japanese firm and its employee for allegedly causing huge financial damages to a city-based company by adopting unethical means.

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The order was passed on the basis of a police investigation, which revealed that Ashish Kalmegh, an employee of the Japanese company Endo Kogyo Co. Ltd, who is an ex-employee of the complainant company Arhan Technologies Pvt Ltd, had conspired against the latter and had stolen confidential data that resulted to huge a financial loss to the firm.

Arhan Technologies is into industrial engineering marketing and sales and has its office in Hadapsar. Kalmegh worked with Arhan Technologies as a sales engineer from 2004 to 2010.

“In May 2010, Arhan Technologies has given Kalmegh the responsibility to handle the marketing of products manufactured by Endo Kogyo. The company even sent him to Japan for 10 days to get him trained at Endo Kogyo’s factory outlet,” states the order passed by Rajesh Agrawal, the secretary and the adjudicating officer from the state’s IT department.

The order stated that following his return coming from Japan, Kalmegh started working unprofessionally and later resigned from Arhan Technologies to joined Endo Kogyo. “Kalmegh left the company without serving the mandatory notice period of 45 days and didn’t even surrender his official email id. He even kept resetting the passwords and accessed the confidential information related to Arhan Technologies’ product designs and passed it to Endo Kogyo. This act caused huge financial loses to Technologies,” the order stated.

Soon, after the officials of Arhan Technologies realised that Kalmegh had accessed the data, and that he’s the one who has leaked it Endo Kogyo, they approached Hadapsar police and lodged a complaint against him. The company also approached the secretary of state’s IT department and filed a complaint against Endo Kogyo.

The Hadapsar police, along cyber crime investigation expert Sandip Gadiya, carried out a probe and arrested Kalmegh. He was booked under relevant sections of IT Act.

On the basis of detailed investigation conducted by the Hadapsar police, the adjudicating officer held Kalmegh and Endo Kogyo guilty of stealing information by using unethical ways, and slapped them with a fine of Rs 60 lakh.